Biographical Data
Born in Deisswil, Switzerland, in 1937. He lives and works in Paris, in Switzerland and in Sitges. Peter Stämpfli studies Fine-Arts in Bienne (1954-1955) and later enrolls in Max von Mühlenen’s painting workshop. He moves to Paris in 1960. His first individual exhibition takes place in 1966. At the beginning Peter Stämpfli is a representative of European pop art but will exhibit witch the Figuration Narrative movement. In 1970, he represents Switzerland in the Venice Biennale. In 1980, Georges Perec offers an Alphabet pour Stämpfli on the occasion of his exhibition at the Pompidou Center. The Musée du Jeu de Paume dedicates a retrospective to Stämpfli in 2002. In 2006 he begins working, alongside with his wife, Anna-Maria, on the project of creating a contemporary art center in Sitges: the Fundació Stämpfli , where works of artists from the sixties to the present time will be displayed.
Brief Chronology
In 1963, taking a picture or an image as a starting point, Peter Stämpfli paints “larger than nature” “expressions and objects that are so common they pass unnoticed” (Machine à laver, 1963; Pot au feu, 1963; La cigarette, 1964). In the realistic works he creates in 1965, he only represents car pieces. His canvases are cut up in the shape of tires, wheels, steering wheels, etc. and displayed depending on the exhibition space. He thinks he has found in cars “the sterilized super beauty (he was looking for)”. In 1969 he only represents the tire and its print which he enlarges to obtain abstract results. In the 80’s he presents his pneumatic geometries, as pastel paintings, as large installations or in sculpture. In 1998, with the series Structures noires sur couleur, he explores the rhythm that his labyrinthine trace imposes on monochrome surfaces. He makes movies as an extension to his pictorial work (Firebird, 1969; Ligne continue, 1974). In 1993 he begins creating monumental sculptures.
P.L.T.
galeries :
www.zannettacci.com
www.galerie-vallois.com
Rouge baiser, 1966-2002, Oil on cut out panel, 92 x 242 cm / 36,2 x 95,2 in.
Town & Country nº 2 (1972), oil on shaped canvas, 351 x 215 cm / 138,1 x 84,6 in